View Full Version : What were your early jobs?
Thank Barb for this one...
What were some of your early work experiences?
I did all the usual... babysitting, fast food, department store..I've worked in a flower shop and stripped/waxed floors...I enjoyed the flower shop, but it's a lot more physical work than you'd expect.
Anybody have an unusual job or one that kinda pointed you in the direction you wanted to go?
melendipity
02-17-04, 02:08 PM
When i was at university in the 80's, i spent hours in the kitchen of a seafood restaurant washing dishes. heaps of dishes. piles and piles of dishes. i got fed lots of garlic prawns by the chef though, they were scrummy.
shotglass
02-17-04, 04:46 PM
Not alot here, bussed tables for a couple years before I went into the military.
gopsdragon
02-17-04, 05:49 PM
Petty officer, United States Navy.
Got a paper route when I was 10, then I offered lawn maintenance and snow removal services to my customers and made a pretty good buck...I was rich for a kid
Worked in Dept stores, restaurants and cleaned/stripped/waxed floors just like Kimmy.
I am 35 and ready for retirement
KrzDefKat
02-17-04, 08:09 PM
Delivered newspapers, worked in the chem lab in high school (mostly cleaning equipment), worked for the family lawyer cleaning up rental properties (some carpentry, fixed tiles, painting), started at the racetrack (hotwalking/grooming horses).
Rguess21
02-17-04, 10:32 PM
I worked as a pinchaser at the bowling alley for 3 years. Also I was a skate guard at the city ice rink. The first two years of college I worked full time as a janitor in the public schools. For the last three years of school I worked as a lab assistant in the pharmacology department where I can still remember stomping down the trash & looking down to see an 18G needle sticking out the top of my tennis shoe. :confused: :OOPS:
Pistol Pete
02-17-04, 11:12 PM
Hey RGuess, my first job, at 15, was at a bowling alley. It sucked, big time (cleaning up after those bastards trashed the areas). I was there long enough to get the money to buy a motor cycle and then I was GONE! After high school, I got into the construction business and built shopping centers and houses. After that I went to work in an industrial electrical manufacturing plant. After several years learning how the shit works, I moved from the shop to Engineering, after a brief layoff, and eventually got layed off again. I got hired back and I'm still with some of the same people, but the old business (since 1939) is long gone. Yankee carpetbaggers destroyed us. :cry:
The U.S.S. Alabama in Mobile has our electrical equipment on her. As has every ship in the Navy from 1940 until 1990.
Originally posted by melendipity
i got fed lots of garlic prawns by the chef though, they were scrummy.
That put an interesting picture in my head. :whip: :Boobies: :Poke:
Barb101
02-17-04, 11:55 PM
I rolled billions & billions of newspapers w/rubberbands for years when I was a kid for friends of the family that ran the local paper. (I should've called child labor on them, bastards) Then I worked in a mess hall on base for a couple of months. That's when I realized food services wasn't for me. :nuts: I've basically worked in the newspaper/print shop/ad agency business through college & most of my adult life. Co-owned a CNC machine shop. Sold that & now I'm just......Mom!
The shortest job I ever had was for 4 hours at a K-Mart in south Louisiana. I could NOT understand a damned thing those cajuns said, shea. :mad: :D
wrecker05
02-18-04, 12:25 AM
As a young Wrecker, 5th grade or so, I mowed lawns. Later on I washed dishes. As a 16 year old I tried waiting tables in a family breakfast greasy spoon type of place. That didn't work out as well as I thought. I was always getting into trouble for telling long hairs, "Dirty hippy, get a haircut :nolike:" It all worked out though, the older people liked my respectfull ways.
I left for the miltary at 17.
The post active duty jobs are best left for a more appropiate thread.
Seaman Stains
02-18-04, 12:33 AM
After I got expelled from school, I Went into the family retail business (my dad founded a supermarket chain), did a bit of smuggling, had a boat hire business then a fishing boat, worked as a ship's engineer, maintenence fitter at a wood chipping mill, ships chandler, ships provadore (yes I was a member of the Painter & Dockers Union [I]For the benefit of our seppo mates it was the one of most notorious bunch of criminals this country has ever seen second only to the police) a bit more smuggling and ended up in the motor trade this all happened before I was 21!
After many years both fixing and dealing cars then a bait 'n tackle business I got into engineering, everything from high-rise construction, shipbuilding, demolition, and telecommunications to industrial engineering which is what I do today!
I used to be a sanitary engineer, which means I used to scrub toilets and clean office buildings in the evenings, to get me thru college. For one month I was one of those IKEA bozos that help you stuff your newly bought DIY furniture kit in your car. But for the most part I cleaned bathrooms. After college I worked for about 7 architects in 1 1/2 year. :(
There was a time when I was cleaning one of the schools that I scrubbed 16 toilets a day...........when things really suck here, I think back to that and all of a sudden, things don't suck as much anymore
Kim Possible
02-18-04, 02:19 PM
Ok, I'll be the first to admit it - I worded at McD's for my first job at 16. (That doesn't count the endless hours of babysitting.) For the summers we'd vacation in Michigan and I was from the city. It was either work at the feed store - which I knew nothing about or McDonalds. I loved it as a teen but you couldn't pay me enough to go back now. Back then they had a better way of motivating kids to work and be clean, now I get nervous with just the appearances of their staff and eating area.
After that I did retail, managed stores at the mall even sold cars before I finished college.
My first post-college job was as a "drug prevention specialist." I went into schools and told kids not to use drugs. That was the hardest job of all.
My first job was a laborer for a power company. I washed vehicles, did minor maintenance on them like oil changes and or tire work. The union found out I was doing this and decided to get me into the union. My wages more than doubled and I thought hey, this power industry isn't too bad. I joined the Navy to get into the nuclear field, and once I got out of there, I started to work in the commercial nuclear power industry. I imagine I will be there until my wife can support our family.;)
WARTHOG
02-18-04, 09:40 PM
Hull Maintenance Technician, R-Div, USS Puget Sound AD-38.
Served from 81-85. There was another ship, but talking about it makes me want to kill people so I'll leave it be.
WARTHOG
02-18-04, 09:43 PM
Dammit, I forgot to post the pic.
My first job where I actually got a check was dragging Christmas trees out of the woods. Lots of work, little pay and I still can’t stand the smell of pine needles! I joined the military thinking that would give me a direction. Fat chance, it just open a plethora of other paths for me. I took a break and worked at a ski lodge for two seasons. I can’t forget construction. Then I build and inspected airplanes for a few years. And now I am back where I started, wondering what I am going to do with my life!:rolleyes:
wrecker05
02-20-04, 01:26 AM
LOL. You will probably do your 20+ Mando.:hehe:
You are probably right Wrecker. Comfort with what you are doing, looking forward to work every day and accomplishment, go a long way!
wrecker05
02-20-04, 02:12 AM
Attention to detail. Motivation is the key.:cool:
Mowed lawns and was a golf caddy till I got a car at 15. Worked as a stock boy at the local drug store til I went in the Navy at 17.
JasmineDreamz
02-22-04, 06:24 PM
Mowed yards, babysitting, general office work, silk-screening t-shirts, industrial assembly and wiring, imputing orders for long distance service, mother, daycare and bookkeeping. As far as any one job pointing me in the direction I'd like to go that's hard to say. I haven't a clue where I want to go or do really. I just do what I'm doing at the time.
I cant remember my first paid job.Possibly putting accounts in envelopes or clearing a fence line not sure which came first.
Most of my early employment has been involved in farming.Hay production and shearing .When I got a bit older like 17-18 I started doing things like butchering where I was really self employed.
Then there is a list of employment that I have had that were short term type things it would be drawing a long bow to claim they were jobs but theoretically they were.
Horse breaking,mustering,horse shoeing,tree lopping, marine salvage(probably one of seaman stains smuggling vessels),tree planting,general hand for a trail riding business in the high country,pencilling for a bookie and busking(stop laughing Jill and Miss):D There's more but as I said they really couldn't be called jobs even though I got paid for them.
Ether_Elemental
02-22-04, 11:46 PM
still on my first job :sure:
My first job was as a burger flipper at one of the local grease houses. After that, I moved on to a 'real' restaurant job (you know, one where they have cloth napkins). :p I started there as a dishwasher, and that lasted all of about an hour. The boss walked by and said, "Who's on dishes?", to which I sheepishly replied, "Me?". He said, "Well, you're far too organized for this shit work...let's get you cooking." Cooking kept me busy for the next 10 years. At some point in there I realized I could make money playing with computers, so I traded in my apron and my knives for a job where I didn't smell like food. :shrug:
bearfoot
02-24-04, 07:10 AM
My first job was in a wholefood (healthfood) shop...I was 15...then on to working in a hippy/surf shop.
I've had so many jobs..some cool some totaly shit. I've travelled around picking fruit seasonally...got into modeling for a while (that sucked big time)...groomed dogs...office work...cleaning motel rooms...blah blah blah.
The most fun job I ever had was a receptionist in a brothel....such a good laugh and always interesting.
Best job I ever had is being a mother...long hours...but the boss is really cute....and the job perk is the kisses and cuddles...it's also the only job I ever had where I am indespensible. :)
thudster2000
02-25-04, 05:00 AM
reckon th first job i had was shoveling horse shit outta th barns at home then i got smart at th ripe ole age of 16 i was playing guitar in a whore house in mexico well at least till my dad found out now i m at a very ripe old age and still shovel horse hockey once in awhile a cowboys life
thudster2000
02-25-04, 05:04 AM
Say hey Micron what th hell do busking mean
Originally posted by thudster2000
Say hey Micron what th hell do busking mean
A crowded street a guitar and some form of receptacle in which you encourage people to throw money by making noises in your throat in time with the movements of your hands.:D
jillamanda
02-25-04, 02:57 PM
;) .....I'm glad you didn't say it was singing and dancing, Micron.......
My first job was waitressing over Easter while I was at high school, and I hated it!!!!
When I was 18, I ran off and joined the circus with a couple of friends. Actually, we were approached by a woman who asked us, and we all said yes. She arranged to pick us up at a certain time - there was four of us, one was a guy. She picked us up in an old ambulance and drove us a couple of hundred miles to a place called Bathurst where there was a country show on. She had a caravan (trailer) there that we shared with the 'Snake Lady' - a woman who wrapped herself in toy snakes and danced. My friend and I were to be 'Girls in the Goldfish Bowl', which was a set up with a fisheye type lens that made it look like a goldfish bowl from the outside. Anyway, we took it in turns to sit there, and wave at all the rednecks....It was a weird experience - there were three legged dogs there, and sheep with two heads - all sorts of strange things.
After the second day, we moved on to another town, and the lady who'd picked us up had to go back to Sydney for a night, and she left us there til she got back. We decided to go into town and have a few beers, We went to the local pub and ended up inviting half the town back for a party, someone rang the cops, and I decided that the circus life wasn't for me, so I hitch hiked back to Sydney....an abrupt end to a promising career as 'the Girl in the Goldish Bowl'..
Apart from that, I've worked in shops, been a barmaid and scrubbed out pleasure cruisers. I picked carnations once too......
Originally posted by jillamanda
;) .....I'm glad you didn't say it was singing and dancing, Micron.......
Yeah well I'm not stupid Jill.
I did make some money.:D
Seaman Stains
02-26-04, 08:30 PM
Originally posted by micron
Yeah well I'm not stupid Jill.
I did make some money.:D
They probably paid you to stop!
jillamanda
02-26-04, 08:42 PM
;) Poor Micron, he's not that bad, it's more his choice of songs - if you don't like Chad Morgan, nothing's going to make him sound better.....
Originally posted by Seaman Stains
They probably paid you to stop!
Hey its a living.Just because no-one's ever payed you to stop singing.:rolleyes:
Originally posted by jillamanda
;) it's more his choice of songs - if you don't like Chad Morgan, nothing's going to make him sound better.....
I just play what the audience(most) want.I might add I have never owned a Chad Morgan albumn until I got one for my birthday from Jill and Misscreants private collection.:cool:
jillamanda
02-26-04, 09:46 PM
It must have been lying in there, hiding, just waiting for you....;) Hey, you also scored 'The Average White' band LP too........and I put 'The Modern Lovers' aside, SS. We're going to get all the good ones put on CD, finally....:)
justagirl
03-19-04, 03:21 PM
I was a research assistant to a college professor that was doing a study on swingers' lifestyles. He used to go to all the conventions in costume and did surveys about their interests, likes, dislikes, proclivities, etc. and I would imput the results into a computer. Pretty interesting reading, especially for a teenager. When I left his employ, he gave me a leather whip. I hope it was new and not used....
Seaman Stains
03-19-04, 03:33 PM
Originally posted by justagirl
he gave me a leather whip. I hope it was new and not used....
Ya still got the whip? :whip: :laugh: :laugh:
Jeez Justagirl, long time no see, Welcome back.
justagirl
03-19-04, 03:43 PM
Still got it; still use it.
Thanks. Good to be back!!!
My first job was at Mcdonald's. I worked there for two months. Most of the time the bosses had me out in the lobby cleaning tables. Probably one of the reasons I quit. That and I would come to work expecting to work 8 hours and they would send me home an hour and half later. :mad:
Serious? Well if child labor laws were in effect when I was young, I wouldn't had to work:
At 12 I was waiting tables 7 days a week 3 times a day-25 bucks a month
13 I was washing dishes-30 Bucks a month
14 I was a cook-40 bucks a month
15 auto mechanic-45 bucks a month
16-18 heavy equipment operatot-65 bucks a month, then I got into some trouble so I was doing irragation (6in pipe) for 25 bucks a month. I did that for a year and jumped to driving tractors (same pay)
In the summer I was a go fer plumber, took a leave of absence from primary job.
I was also in my early equipment operator days a mechanic, so I had to request leave of absence.
I'm for real on this I didn't live a normal childhood so I was required to work. Instilled disipline. not a bad thing but I see how lazy our youth are these days. I worked for everything I had. no free hand outs. That is why I respect my stuff because if it broke I either fixed it or was assed out till I could afford to get it fixed.
JBMoney
10-31-05, 07:33 AM
slacker...
STIBROKER
10-31-05, 07:37 AM
At 12 I was waiting tables 7 days a week 3 times a day-25 bucks a month
with or without tips..................
RicardoHead
10-31-05, 07:52 AM
Funny I never saw this thread before. Besides mowing a few lawns as a kid:14 - TV repair shop
16 - Warehouse grunt at a furniture store
17 - started with dishes, promoted to cook at a pizza joint (not Little Ceasars)
18 to 21 - cashiering/stocking at a toy store to put myself thru college
I also did a couple Christmas jobs selling trees and a month at a department store where my manager (a woman) and another lady would occasionally feel on my ass while I leaned on the counter. I actually really did feel violated, but I figured it was a harmless and easy way to help pay for school and how many other guys can say they earned a living letting chicks feel their ass.
slacker...
Yeah..... :thumbsup: no shit
living letting chicks feel their ass
Porn star? :worthy: or chip n dale :shrug:
Farouka Hookah
10-31-05, 01:12 PM
Ahh, the good old days. I worked at two liquor stores while in college. That provided me so much good comedy material it might have been worth it after all. :p
Did a paper route and mowed lawns when younger. Later got a job assembling/building neon signs. Worked for Raytheon iriditing parts then went into the Air Force.
brianw13a
10-31-05, 03:13 PM
Paper route, lawn mowing, Krogers, McD's, Toys R Us, IBM, and various trade shows. I had this thing about keeping money coming in :beerchug:
Well I guess I still do.
wrecker05
11-01-05, 10:28 AM
Jobs as a child?I sat home with my rich Republican parents.
Ok not true, I sat home with my rich Conservative Republican parents. :hehe:
wrecker05
11-01-05, 10:31 AM
Ahh, the good old days. I worked at two liquor stores while in college. That provided me so much good comedy material it might have been worth it after all. :p
Wow, first job FH?
first job... personal assistant to robert redford...
not really but it sounded good..
15- K-Wolens department store
16-21 pizza hut
21-30 i was a professional baby factory
30 to present.. flower/gift shop
and yes, it is alot harder than people think!
Spotter
11-01-05, 08:09 PM
My first regular job with a paycheck was in a factory assembly line making trussing for circular irrigators. Back breaking work for $2.25 per hour. I was 15
Oh yeah, I forgot....
I had this job working in the oilfield storage yards. We use to take these 50' 3" diameter drilling pipe and put them on this jig that rotated them. We'd magnetize the pipe then heft this 8lb detector on them and walk the whole length checking for cracks etc. Then walk back and do another. Each pass took about 3 minutes each way. I must have walked 50 miles each day in the hot friggin sun. The pipes got really heavy towards the end of the day. I remember coming to work and seeing these huge stack of pipe we had to test and just groaning.
I think it was right about that time that I discovered going to school was a good thing. :p
Farouka Hookah
11-02-05, 11:59 PM
Wow, first job FH?
Actually, I my first job was picking grapes, then right after I worked a CD/tape store (remember tapes). The liquor stores came a little later but due to the lessons I learned I consider the liquor industry to be my first job. :D
RicardoHead
11-03-05, 07:47 AM
(remember tapes) 8-tracks?
Rguess21
11-03-05, 04:38 PM
8-tracks?
I take it you completely missed out on the short lived 4 tracks. :)
Let's see if I can remember.... at 14 I picked apples for about a month for 45 cents a bushel. 15 I was mooching off of my parents and picking up aluminum cans for spare change. 16-18 I was working on cars in my non-school hours (back before everything was computerised). Two weeks after my 18th birthday I was in bootcamp.
Believe it or not, I was actually making 25 to 35 bucks a week picking up aluminum cans in the early 80's. For a 15 year old, that was some pretty good money. It bought all of my beer, cigarettes and munchies. And gas for whoever was toting me around at the time. :thumbsup:
STIBROKER
11-04-05, 09:16 PM
Oh yeah, I forgot....
I had this job working in the oilfield storage yards.
but now as long as he has his swingline stapler.....
http://bressler.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=19538
Kim Possible
11-05-05, 07:35 AM
My first 'job' was babysitting; when I was 14 I'd make between $12-20 a night. As I got older I would get paid more. I babysat through college by watching kids for a week or weekend while there parents whent on vacation. $500 - no taxes - great!
I wasn't allowed to work during the school year until I was a senior. My summer job in High School was at McDonalds for 3 years. I loved working there - it was in a small town where we spent our summers - so lots of kids worked there.
College - I worked as a manager in a mall store - fantastic. I got 50% off clothes and worked a ton!
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